The temperatures were nice. The sun was beautiful. The mornings were crisp. The afternoons were warm.
This my friends sums up the majority of September 2012… and indeed most of August.
It can also be summed up in other ways:
It is by far the driest September in the short record at Alberniweather:
2006: 79.8mm
2007: 70.9mm
2008: 28.7mm
2009: 93.7mm
2010: 90.4mm
2011: 107.7mm
2012: 7.6mm
It is also the driest September in the records since the Environment Canada installed the new station at the Airport in 1996:
1998: 7.4mm
2012: 3.4mm
Now lets look waaayyyyy back. Port Alberni is pretty lucky. We have stations in the Valley that reach back 118 years to 1894! There is no single station that goes back that far unfortunately, but we have a LOT of stations.
2012 is #4 on this list of all time driest Septembers recorded in the Alberni Valley since 1894.
1952 (Lupsi Cupsi/Catalyst 1949-1974): 7.6mm
1965 (Hatchery 1961-2007): 4.6mm
2012 (“A” Airport): 3.4mm
1918 (Port Alberni City Hall 1917-1960): 3.0mm
1918 (Beaver Creek 1894-1958): 2.5mm
1991 (“A” Estuary 1969-1995): 2.1mm
2012 is the 2nd driest August-September period ever…
1974 (Lupsi Cupsi/Catalyst 1949-1974): 2.0mm + 42.7mm = 44.7mm
1998 (Hatchery 1961-2007): 16.5mm + 20.9mm = 37.4mm
1989 (“A” Estuary 1969-1995): 19.8mm + 13.4mm = 33.2mm
1929 (Port Alberni City Hall 1917-1960): 10.7mm + 5.8mm = 16.5mm
1896 (Beaver Creek 1894-1958): 7.6mm + 6.9mm = 14.5mm
2012 (“A” Airport): 8.4mm + 3.4mm=11.8mm
1916 (Beaver Creek 1894-1958): 4.8mm + 6.1mm=10.9mm
2012 is top-3 July-August-September period ever…
1916 (Beaver Creek 1894-1958): 71.6mm + 4.8mm + 6.1mm= 82.5mm
1989 (“A” Estuary 1969-1995): 43.2mm + 19.8mm + 13.4mm = 76.4mm
2012 (“A” Airport): 24.4mm + 8.4mm + 3.4mm= 36.2mm
1929 (Port Alberni City Hall 1917-1960): 15.0mm + 10.7mm + 5.8mm = 31.5mm
1896 (Beaver Creek 1894-1958): 2.0mm + 7.6mm + 6.9mm = 16.5mm
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3 responses to “The month that was September 2012”
Great work Chris! It has been a truly remarkable past three months – more blue sky than I can ever remember in my 34 years on the west coast. And according to the forecast, the sunshine continues…..
Assuming the pattern holds, and there seems no reason think it won’t… We will smash the 4 month period from July thru October. We need to get over 140mm of rain this October for 1896 to still be driest. There is a system on the long range starting Oct 14 that is showing 60mm. It usually over estimates, so we’d probably need 3 big systems in the last two weeks of the month to not break the all time record. We are guaranteed 2nd place though unless the rain-apocalypse comes (180mm). And honestly I’m not sure that Environment Canada considers the 1896 data reliable so really we may be there already.
Interesting local temperatures at 6:30 am: Maquinna School – 4.3, Nick’s Weather – 3.8, alberniweather – 1.5, Alberni Elementary – 1.0, Airport – 0. My own outdoor thermometer has dropped from 1.5 to 1.0 in the last hour.